Show full directory path in Finder window title bars

Dec 2, 2007 - 28 Comments

Full path in Finder title bars

The geekier amongst us and those familiar with Unix should really like this trick. You can have Mac OS X 10.5 display the full directory path in the Finder window title bar by issuing a simple command from the Terminal.

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES
Then you’ll want to kill the Finder for changes to take effect:
killall Finder

To disable the full path title bars and revert back to the default, simply repeat the command with NO instead of YES as the operator:
defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool NO
killall Finder

Note: this apparently only works within Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and newer (thanks kg!). Tested for 10.6.3 works fine as well.

Related articles:

Posted by: Paul Horowitz in 10.5, Command Line, Customize, Mac OS X, Tips & Tricks

28 Comments

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  1. kg says:

    Sadly, it has no effect in 10.4.

  2. [...] (Via Show full directory path in Finder window title bars – OS X Daily.) [...]

  3. jhm says:

    Thanks*10^6!

  4. calvin says:

    This worked, but caused an intended side effect.

    My iTunes library lives on an external drive connected to an Airport Extreme.

    With full-directory paths displayed, the external drive could be seen but would not fully mount. iTunes would not work, and I could not see the directories on that external drive from Finder.

    Thankfully the author included instructions for how to reverse the process. Things went back to normal immediately.

  5. [...] OSXDaily posted something interesting here The geekier amongst us and those familiar with Unix should really like this trick. You can have Mac OS X 10.5 display the full directory path in the Finder window title bar by issuing a simple command from the Terminal. defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES [...]

  6. [...] Show full directory path in Finder window title bars – OS X Dailyより [...]

  7. [...] Bonus: Full Directory Path In Finder – This tweak is for you power users who want to know the exact location of where you are at in Finder. When enabled, it shows you the full path of the current directory you are browsing in the Finder title bar.   [...]

  8. Kevin says:

    You just made my day :) Im an newly Mac convert and I missed this from the Windows world.

  9. Ista says:

    Um, if you want to see the full path, why don’t you just enable it in the view menu?

  10. doctor says:

    now that is cool

    But is there a way to edit that path live in the title bar????

  11. Joey D says:

    Nice. Thanks a lot it saves me time.

  12. S. Biswas says:

    Not working in 10.4

  13. Claus Larsen says:

    Nice tip, but I am missing one thing in my title bar, the share name.
    I connect to a lot of Linux boxes which has the same directory setup and share names, and without the share name in the title, it is not easy to identify which server I am on.
    Any ideas?

  14. [...] Bonus: Full Directory Path In Finder – This tweak is for you power users who want to know the exact location of where you are at in Finder. When enabled, it shows you the full path of the current directory you are browsing in the Finder title bar. [...]

  15. Jim says:

    It does put something in the title bar but the path doesn’t seem to change as I navigate in finder. :(

  16. [...] Show full directory path in Finder window title bars – OS X Daily.) Share and [...]

  17. dan says:

    works on 10.5.7

  18. dan says:

    works on 10.5.7

  19. bobbers says:

    this did not work on my laptop
    would this be because i dont have the ability to read/write on some folders ?

  20. Alex says:

    Less than great…. (osx 10.6.3)
    Dont take me wrong: it is good to know where you are when moving between those windows.
    My rant is against “the apple” that makes certain things so not user-friendly (so much for usability)…
    This option should be available right away by default… and and have an easy “copy path to clipboard” …yeah, you can drop the file or folder somewhere and it displays the path but hey, I’m keyboard oriented, so what ?

  21. Mr.IO says:

    Works beautifully. @Alex: it took me one hit to find it, that’s user friendly enough for a keyboard oriented user.

  22. [...] O Findera chodzi? No to: Show full directory path in Finder window title bars A jak na dole to jest to w preferencjach Findera. MBP 13" c2d 2.53, 4gb, 250gb, Snow [...]

  23. alan says:

    Thanks! No finder restart required for this to take effect. OS X 10.6.5

  24. [...] you were wondering, I have my titlebars set to display full directory paths which is why you see the path on the remote server in the second [...]

  25. jji7skyline says:

    Just to tell you it also works in 10.7 (aka Lion)

  26. Omar Borjas says:

    Niiceeee!!! Rock On!!

  27. [...] Show full directory path in Finder window title bars. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. This entry was posted in [...]

  28. [...] you can also display the full path in Finder windows titlebars. stLight.options({ publisher:'fe5e0a84-1fac-40de-8014-9f89fc1cbe6a' [...]

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